Boca Grande and Anna's Tacqueria turning into corporate Chipotle?

I've hit Anna's in Davis Square a few times this year already and been supremely disappointed in the bland chicken and the dry mostly tasteless pork....not what I remember from Anna's last year.Hit Boca Grande in Coolidge Corner this weekend and to my horror, a lot of the interesting mexican flavors have been replaced w/ various chicken flavors...colorado, lemon....pineapple???I gave up and got an al pastor burrito and the guy pulled it out of the fridge and tossed it on the grill to reheat it :-O

Both used to be more authentic mexican but did I miss the news that they're now trying to be more like Chipotle? :-P

Boca Grande always sucked hard, so let's just get that out of the way. As far as meat quality, it varies highly between Anna's locations and if anything this is totally anti-corporate because they can't figure out how to standardize their product.

Anna's now offers slices of whole fresh avocado and you can even get cubit-long super burritos (some locations). These are highly authentic touches that bring the product incrementally closer to a real Mission/Oakland product.

Burritos are a Northern CA product, and I think the concept of "authentic Mexican" is irrelevant in terms of defining the qualities of the style. If I had to guess why Anna's recently introduced some new meats (chicken ranchero, steak in salsa roja) it might be to compete with these new Boca Grande flavors, or with Boloco which I guess is the local king of "variety in a tortilla."

And speaking of inability to standardize between locations, the Davis Square Anna's has always been the worst of the lot. The Beacon Street and Harvard Street locations in Brookline are generally better.

I found your post very articulate and informative. The one point I do not grok is the 'cubit long burritos of the Mission.' which, while eating Mission take-out burritos these last 12 years, i have not noticed.

The only Anna's we have been to is the Davis Sq spot, and we always have had terrific pastor burritos ( as good as our fav Mission ones) and chile verde there. I'll make a point of going for a gustar of their new fillings (as I always ask for a taste before ordering any Boston area Mexican sauce or filling, given that 99% of them are yech.)

The ridiculously long super burritos are something I can recall having at El Ojo de Agua in Oakland, never seen them in MA. I haven't tried any of the new flavor meats because I don't like a lot of sauce in my burrito, and I'd prefer the meat to be unsauced.

Sorry...by "authentic mexican", I mean the flavorings on the meat and how they're cooked (it could also mean the guacamole which totally pales to stuff I've had in Texas and Mexico but that's true of both locations). Two flavors in particular I miss off Boca Grande's new menu: conchinita pabil and beef birria. Replaced apparently by pineapple flavored chicken??? :-P

Good to know the David Square Anna's is the worst. I've hit Anna's at the Coolidge corner location too, though I also thought the meat was less flavorful than the Boca Grande there (before the menu change), so maybe Boca has location variation as well. The Davis Square Anna's various chicken flavors are even less flavorful than the Coolidge corner location and their pork (al pastor?) was really dry the time I had it...most likely because most people at that location seem to order the chicken on weekdays.